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In the months after Texas banned all but the earliest abortions in September, the number of legal abortions in the state fell by about half. But two new studies suggest the total number among Texas women fell by far less — around 10 percent — because of large increases in the number of Texans who traveled to a clinic in a nearby state or ordered abortion pills online. Two groups of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin counted the number of women using these alternative options. They found that while the Texas law — which prohibits abortion after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, or around six weeks — lowered the number of abortions, it did so much more modestly than earlier measurements suggested. (Sanger-Katz, Miller and Bui, 3/6)

Newly released data shows that Planned Parenthood health centers in Texas' surrounding states saw a nearly 800% increase in abortion patients from Texas between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31, 2021. Meanwhile in Texas, the number of clinic abortions performed in the state fell by approximately 60% in the first month after Senate Bill 8 was enacted. (Gonzalez, 3/5)

Michelle Gutierrez pointed out pamphlets on the wall in the waiting room of the North West Health Care Center in Cody. "There are pamphlets about things like birth control and STDs, what else do we have? How to talk to your parents. How to talk to your kids. Safe sex and then, like, violence, date rape, drugs, things like that," she said as she showed me. Gutierrez is the executive director of the Title X clinic, which is located in a converted one-story house. It just has a couple of rooms. She opened the door to show me the exam room. (Kudelska, 3/4)

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra spoke of the administration's support for abortion rights Friday as he visited Planned Parenthood in Manchester. Becerra's visit came after his department delivered a Title X Dire Need grant of $500,000 to Planned Parenthood to fill the gap left by funds rejected by New Hampshire's Executive Council over opposition to abortion. (Sexton, 3/4)

It’s been two months since a fire destroyed the Planned Parenthood clinic on North Cherry Street, and still no one has been charged. City of Knoxville Fire Department Assistant Chief Mark Wilbanks said Wednesday investigators are still going through evidence and watching hours of nearby security camera video. Investigators revealed the day after the fire they believed the fire was set intentionally. (Stephens, 3/2)

Planned Parenthood Mar Monte's plans for a new Visalia clinic were temporarily quashed amid mounting controversy from some residents.  A public hearing had been scheduled for Monday's Visalia City Council meeting but was "continued indefinitely" at the request of Orosco Group, the project's developer. The hearing has since been removed from the meeting agenda. "Our intent was to lease or sell a building, not to invite a forum for a national debate about abortion to the city council of Visalia," co-partner Patrick Orosco said.  "It has become that despite our best efforts." (Yeager, 3/6)

The White House hasn’t publicly detailed exactly how it’s spent the more than $4 trillion Congress authorized for Covid-19 relief — and now, that lack of transparency could imperil its request for more money to fight the pandemic and buy therapeutics. Amid heated negotiations over a government funding bill, three dozen Republican senators including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are refusing to consider more Covid-19 relief funding unless the federal government provides a full accounting of how funds have been spent. The White House disputes the accusations that there has been a lack of transparency, and an administration official said the White House briefs Congress on a regular and bipartisan basis about details of the status of relief funding. (Cohrs, 3/4)

The White House is warning that the U.S. will soon begin to run out of money for COVID-19 supplies unless Congress acts to approve more funding. Officials say more money is needed for antibody treatments, preventative pills and to fund testing sites. "From the COVID side, the bank account is empty," COVID-19 deputy coordinator Natalie Quillian said. "We’re in conversations with lawmakers about how to secure the funding, but it’s urgently needed." Some of the consequences could be felt later this month. "This is an urgent request and this is what is at stake in our fight against COVID," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Friday. (Musto, 3/5)

Congressional negotiators were rushing to complete the text of legislation funding the government beyond Friday, with the Biden administration’s request for $10 billion in aid to Ukraine adding to pressure to meet a looming deadline. Republicans and Democrats, after taking months to agree on total defense and nondefense fiscal 2022 spending, have been held up by topics as varied as tacking on emergency money for Ukraine and the next phase of the coronavirus outbreak. With the interim law funding the government expiring at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, and House Democrats set to be in Philadelphia starting Wednesday for a long-planned retreat, negotiators need to make progress quickly. (Hughes, 3/6)

Two weeks after a nationwide recall of infant formula tied to five hospitalizations and two deaths, the FDA is refusing to answer questions about why it took months to take action, while parents, lawmakers and advocates ratchet up pressure on the agency. As POLITICO recently reported, the FDA, CDC and formula maker Abbott Nutrition knew about the first infant seriously sickened by Cronobacter sakazakii, a rare bacteria, in September. It was more than four months before FDA sent inspectors to investigate the plant where the formula was made. It took another three weeks to order a recall. The timeline has raised questions about the government’s response and whether quicker action could have prevented illnesses and deaths. (Bottemiller Evich, 3/5)

Scientists first discovered the tasteless, odorless chemicals along a stretch of southern New Jersey in 2020. Combinations of carbon and fluorine molecules littered the soil and water, where they were absorbed by fish and, quite possibly, the people who live there. The compounds are part of a family of thousands of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, used for decades in consumer products like Teflon cookware, rain gear, and food packaging. The more scientists research PFAS, the more concern emerges about their potential health effects. (Bagenstose, 3/7)

A new report released Monday charts a path for the transition out of the Covid-19 pandemic, one that outlines both how the country can deal with the challenge of endemic Covid disease and how to prepare for future biosecurity threats. The report plots a course to what its authors call the “next normal” — living with the SARS-CoV-2 virus as a continuing threat that needs to be managed. Doing so will require improvements on a number of fronts, from better surveillance for Covid and other pathogens to keeping tabs on how taxed hospitals are; and from efforts to address the air quality in buildings to continued investment in antiviral drugs and better vaccines. The authors also call for offering people sick with respiratory symptoms easy access to testing and, if they are positive for Covid or influenza, a quick prescription for the relevant antiviral drug. (Branswell, 3/7)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 90% of Americans can now consider removing their masks while indoors. The Atlanta-based public health agency updated its mask guidance this week citing data that tracks community wide spread of COVID-19 by county. The announcement came after many states allowed their indoor mask mandates to expire. The CDC's new advice does not apply to every locale or scenario. The Transportation Security Administration's federal mask mandate for traveling by commercial aircraft, bus, and rail systems remains in place but is set to expire on March 18.  (Zubrow, 3/6)

The official global death toll from COVID-19 is on the verge of eclipsing 6 million — underscoring that the pandemic, now entering its third year, is far from over. The milestone is the latest tragic reminder of the unrelenting nature of the pandemic even as people are shedding masks, travel is resuming and businesses are reopening around the globe. The death toll, compiled by Johns Hopkins University, stood at 5,999,158 as of Monday midday. (Rising, 3/7)

KHN: Charts Paint A Grim Picture 2 Years Into The Coronavirus Pandemic 

The coronavirus pandemic is now stretching into its third year, a grim milestone that calls for another look at the human toll of covid-19, and the unsteady progress in containing it. These charts tell various aspects of the story, from the deadly force of the disease and its disparate impact to the signs of political polarization and the United States’ struggle to marshal an effective response. (Jacobson, 3/7)

Americans, by and large, are putting the pandemic behind them. Now that Omicron is in the rearview mirror and cases are plummeting, even many of those who have stayed cautious for two full years are spouting narratives about “going back to normal” and “living with COVID-19.” This mentality has also translated into policy: The last pandemic restrictions are fading nationwide, and in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Joe Biden declared that “most Americans can remove their masks, return to work, stay in the classroom, and move forward safely.” Other rich, highly vaccinated countries are following much the same path. In the U.K., for example, those with COVID-19 no longer have to self-isolate. It helps that these countries have more vaccine doses than they know what to do with, and a stockpile of tools to test and treat their residents if and when they get sick. (Sam-Agudu, Kabisen Titanji, Okumu and Pai, 3/4)

KHN: Watch: California’s Top Health Adviser On Learning To Live With Covid

Dr. Mark Ghaly, head of California’s massive Health and Human Services Agency, continues to wear a mask in grocery stores and will dine outside — but not indoors ­— at restaurants even as California, like much of the nation, has lifted its mask mandate and many other pandemic restrictions. This was among the topics explored March 4 as KHN Senior Correspondent Samantha Young met with Ghaly for a wide-ranging 30-minute interview hosted by the Sacramento Press Club. Young spoke with Ghaly, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s top health adviser, about the administration’s plans for moving forward as covid case rates and hospitalizations ebb. Vaccines, testing, and masking are all part of the governor’s strategy, Ghaly said, as covid becomes endemic and Californians learn to live with the virus. (3/7)

One New Mexican man spent 550 days in the hospital after being diagnosed with COVID-19. After being away from his family for more than a year, Donnell Hunter was finally able to go home. It seemed the whole town of Roswell rolled out the red carpet for his return, he even got a police escort as he was driven in from Albuquerque. Signs of encouragement lined the road into Roswell Friday. All greeting Hunter as he came home, after more than a year in a hospital bed. (Schacht, 3/5)

The 11-year-old cat had been vomiting and lethargic for several days, and showed little interest in food. When the pet was examined at the University of Pennsylvania’s Ryan Veterinary Hospital in September, her owner mentioned a possible clue to the symptoms: Someone in the household had COVID-19. The animal’s nasal swab turned up negative. A fecal sample, on the other hand, told the tale. The shorthair feline was infected with the delta variant. Scientists have now found the coronavirus in 29 kinds of animals, a list that has been steadily growing almost since the start of the pandemic and includes cats, dogs, ferrets, hamsters, tigers, mice, otters, and hippos. In most cases, the animals have not been shown to transmit the virus back to humans. (Avril, 3/7)

In many North Carolina towns and cities, mask mandates are ending, and vaccination requirements are loosening, but questions remain about the next COVID-19 subvariant, omicron BA.2. The subvariant makes up roughly 8% of cases nationwide, according to data from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the week ending Feb. 26. “Just the fact that there is a new variant circulating doesn’t necessarily mean anything in terms of people’s risk or in terms of our trajectory with the pandemic,” said Dr. Zack Moore, North Carolina’s state epidemiologist. Instead, scientists look at whether a subvariant is more transmissible, causes more severe disease and evades vaccines, as well as how it responds to different treatment options, Moore said. (Lee, 3/5)

Michigan turned the tide after COVID-19 ravaged communities of color early in the pandemic, but Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist and a state task force recommended additional broader steps must be taken to ensure long-standing improvement in health outcomes. That includes better data collection, consistent funding for community health centers, and working to ensure more Michiganders have health insurance. (Boucher, 3/4)

Robi Tamargo never worried much about her heart. The 61-year-old had started running competitively in middle school, played Division 1 sports in college and kept up her exercise routine throughout her life, working out regularly at her local gym before work. But that changed in the spring of 2020 — when she got COVID. Tamarago, a clinical psychologist who used to serve in the Navy, discovered a patient of hers was infected. Soon she was also sick, and it got bad quickly. She woke up one morning in early May to discover the left side of her face was numb. At the hospital, doctors found a blood clot in her brain and were able to treat it quickly enough to prevent her from experiencing a more serious stroke. (Stone, 3/5)

Leanne Cook was glum but unsurprised when the tests confirmed what she and her doctors had expected: Even after three shots of a vaccine, she had no antibodies to protect her against COVID-19. Her immune system had been hampered by the drugs she takes for her condition, a rare disease affecting her kidneys. As other vaccinated people began to let down their guard last year, Cook continued to minimize trips outside her home in Mission Viejo. Then Cook heard about something that could plug those missing antibodies into her system — a preventive pair of injections called Evusheld. But health officials cautioned that there was only so much to go around. (Alpert Reyes, 3/6)

COVID-19 arrived quickly and devastatingly for Kelly Scannell. It was March 2020. She and her whole family were sick, but there were no tests or treatments available, so they isolated at home and waited for the novel virus to move on. A week and a half in, her otherwise healthy father, 69, had trouble breathing and was rushed to the hospital to be intubated. “It was crazy because they kept telling us updates with some hope,” Scannell said. “It sounded like he was going to get out of it.” But his organs shut down one by one, and on April 5, 2020, Wes Cline died. (Stevens, 3/4)

Passenger ships are once again set to depart from the Alabama Cruise Terminal at Mobile following a nearly two-year break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the city’s future as a cruise port is hazy. The Carnival Ecstasy is scheduled to leave from Mobile Saturday afternoon for a five-day trip to Cozumel, and the Miami-based Carnival Corp. has said the roughly 2,000-passenger ship would continue vacation trips from the port through mid-October. (3/5)

During a three-week stretch at the height of this winter’s devastating omicron case surge, Santa Cruz County health officials lost 10 patients to COVID-19. All but one were vaccinated, and five had received booster shots. As the omicron wave recedes, California data reveal an unsettling trend. Compared to the delta variant case surge last summer, deaths among the vaccinated rose sharply with omicron, a variant said by many experts to cause milder illness. A Bay Area News Group analysis of state COVID-19 deaths found that in the four deadliest weeks of the delta and omicron surges, the number of unvaccinated people who died were nearly identical, and far higher than the totals for the vaccinated. Even so, three times more vaccinated people died during the omicron peak than during delta’s heyday. (Woolfolk, Blair Rowan and DeRuy, 3/6)

Philadelphia health officials have said for weeks that more than half of the city’s 5-to-11-year-olds have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. The city’s own data, though, suggest that the vaccination rate might be far lower, closer to a third in that age group. City officials said Friday they were looking at the numbers as part of a routine review, but declined to shed light on apparent discrepancies. “It matters because we need to know how far we’re trying to achieve,” said Ala Stanford, the pediatric surgeon and founder of the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium who has had a focus on vaccinating schoolchildren. Accurate data “just helps me know what goal I’m going toward.” (Laughlin and Graham, 3/4)

As COVID-19 metrics decline to new lows for the year, society begins to adapt to its new normal. Health officials have said the omicron surge is nearing an end and the post-omicron variants haven't had an impact on Wisconsin. Health officials and advisers have said that despite pandemic fatigue, it is their mission to increase the state's vaccination rate, which trails behind the national average. As of Friday, 64% of Wisconsin residents have received at least one dose, while 60.5% of residents are fully vaccinated, according to state Department of Health Services data. Nearly 33% of residents have received a booster dose. (Bentley, 3/4)

As soon as the vaccine mandate went into effect, people began to rebel. Some saw it as government overreach — what right did faraway lawmakers have to tell people what to do with their bodies? Others worried that the vaccine was dangerous, or that they were being used as guinea pigs — what proof was there that this concoction even worked? Protests were staged, opinion pieces written, and parents resorted to subterfuge to avoid vaccinating their kids — they changed addresses to confuse officials, got fake vaccine certificates, and even tried to reverse the process once their kids had already been vaccinated. ... all of the above also happened in 19th-century England, when the government mandated the smallpox vaccine for children. (North, 3/4)

A doctor gives a pep talk to some two dozen women sitting in a hall of a medical center. "We've got Pfizer. We've got Moderna. We've got Sinovac," says Dr. Kishwar Tanwir, who oversees vaccinations in the Pehlwan Goth district of the Pakistani city of Karachi. The women were about to go door-to-door to offer COVID-19 jabs on a recent February day – part of some 13,000 teams led by women that were dispatched across the southern province of Sindh to vaccinate some 12 million people over the age of 12. (Hadid and Sattar, 3/5)

The “People’s Convoy,” a group of hundreds of trucks, cars and SUVs protesting the government’s response to the pandemic, plans to leave the Hagerstown Speedway on Monday about 9:30 a.m. and head to the Capital Beltway for a second day of demonstrations in the D.C. area, an organizer said. Organizer Brian Brase said the group, which circled the Beltway twice on Sunday, aimed to loop around once Monday. He said the group plans to occupy two lanes instead of one as an “escalation.” They will drive the minimum legal speed limit, he said. (Silverman and Ellwood, 3/7)

The Capitol Police Board issued an emergency declaration Sunday in response to convoys of truck drivers who assembled around the capital region to protest the government response to Covid-19. The overseers of the police force that protects Congress and Capitol Hill said the truckers and other vehicles could shut highways, bridges and roadways in the capital region, including in Washington. The protest, which started Sunday with truckers making two noisy laps around the Capital Beltway interstate highway, could last several days. (Allison, 3/6)

Opponents of Gov. Jay Inslee’s public-health restrictions to curb COVID-19 descended upon the Washington Capitol campus Saturday with flags, signs and vehicle convoys. Saturday’s demonstration was titled “Government Resistance Impedes Tyranny” and comes as some of Inslee’s mandates are gradually being lifted. (O'Sullivan, 3/5)

The Georgia Senate on Friday passed legislation on a party-line vote that would ban any state or local agency, government or school from requiring anyone to get a COVID-19 vaccination. Senate Bill 345, sponsored by Senate Rules Chairman Jeff Mullis, would not apply to health care providers. The ban on what is sometimes referred to as a “vaccine passport” would be lifted June 30, 2023. The measure passed 31-19, with Republicans supporting the bill. (Prabhu, 3/4)

Some businesses, including Texas Roadhouse Inc., the Cheesecake Factory Inc. and Applebee’s, believe that there is a benefit for business and their workers when mask mandates are removed. The facial coverings are hot and uncomfortable to work in, and not having to put them on between bites and sips makes customers more motivated to dine out, Applebee’s President John Cywinski said Wednesday. (Haddon and Council, 3/6)

Healthcare employers made more hires last month than during any period since September as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continued to steadily decline. Healthcare companies added an estimated 63,500 jobs in February, up from 17,500 in the first month of 2022, according to preliminary data the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday. The industry contributed to a total of 678,000 new jobs across the economy. (Devereaux, 3/4)

More than half of all Americans say they've directly felt the effects of health care worker shortages, from canceled appointments to delayed surgeries, according to results from a CVS Health-Harris Poll National Health project provided to Axios. Americans are starting to feel the impacts of the medical workforce crunch as they rearrange their care in the wake of the pandemic, leading to an even bigger supply-demand mismatch and the access issues that come with it. (Reed, 3/7)

It has been difficult to find mental health counseling in much of the United States for years, long before the coronavirus pandemic began. But now, after two years of unrelenting stress, turmoil and grief, many people seeking help are confronting a system at or beyond capacity, its inadequacy for this moment plainly exposed. It is even more difficult to find specialized care for children or those with lower income. Assistance of any kind is in short supply in rural areas, where all health-care choices are more limited than they are for residents of cities and suburbia. Those hoping to find a Black or Latino therapist face even more limited options. (Bernstein, 3/6)

Hospitals have had trouble sourcing sodium chloride injections amid recalls and supply disruptions. B. Braun Medical recalled five lots of leaky 250 milliliter sodium chloride injections, the Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday. Hospitals use sodium chloride, also known as saline, to replenish fluids, flush wounds, compound drugs, deliver intravenous medications and stabilize patients during surgery. Vials, syringes, bags and saline solution have been in short supply over the last two months because B. Braun Medical, Pfizer, Fresenius Kabi, Becton Dickinson, Baxter International and ICU Medical have endured manufacturing delays or product malfunctions, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. (Kacik, 3/4)

Amid increasing concern over shortages of medical products, a new study recommends that the United States consider an international treaty that would prohibit countries from banning exports as one way to bolster the critical — but sometimes unreliable — supply chain. Specifically, the federal government is being urged to consider a multilateral arrangement among countries that are major exporters of products and components such as pharmaceutical ingredients or glass vials to prevent shortages from developing or worsening. And any treaty should be administered by the World Trade Organization and have the capacity to impose sanctions if needed. (Silverman, 3/4)

Fewer people in New Mexico are donating their bodies to science when they die, making training harder for medical students preparing for their careers. The University of New Mexico Anatomy Lab said Friday that it needs about 75 donated cadavers each year to train future doctors, but currently only has 18. (3/4)

States would get federal grants to hire and retain mental health providers in schools under legislation co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan. Hassan, a Democrat, said the legislation would create a new grant program at the Department of Health and Human Services. The federal government would cover 90% of the cost of providing mental health services to children enrolled in Medicaid. (3/6)

Many Minneapolis school counselors have caseloads topping 450 students — almost twice the workload recommended by the American School Counselor Association. St. Paul schools have one counselor for every 230 students. District officials and teachers union leaders agree the need for those mental health services is higher than ever and that boosting support for students is a priority. But coming up with a staffing plan to do that — and how to write it into a contract — has proven a sticking point at the bargaining table amid stalled contract negotiations. Absent resolution of that issue, and others including pay and class-size limits, teachers union members on both sides of the river are ready to go on strike Tuesday morning. (Klecker, Walsh and Campuzano, 3/6)

Dear Mom and Dad, if you’re trying to get your child to open up about some heavy emotions, please do not tell them, “We need to talk.” “That’s the worst way to start a conversation,” said Kansas City counselor Carron Montgomery, author of “The Invisible Riptide,” a book for parents and children explaining how to work through the world’s current “silent emotional tsunami.” Medical experts have warned that Americans are experiencing a mental health emergency made worse by the pandemic. Instead, try talking while you’re in the car so you don’t have to make eye contact, Montgomery said. Or while cooking dinner or playing a board game. “Kids are more likely to talk when they’re doing something, like shooting baskets,” she said. (Gutierrez, 3/6)

For years, the primary cause of death for younger Americans was automobile accidents. That’s evolving as firearm deaths mount — and they cost millions of years of potential life. In an analysis in Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open, researchers found that between 2009 and 2018, the United States lost 12.6 million years of life because of firearms alone. (Blakemore, 3/6)

Miles Smith belonged to a website where members from around the world help one another end their lives. Smith’s mother believes that’s where her first-born learned how to turn a common chemical into a lethal brew. Smith died last August in a Kansas City apartment at the age of 31, leaving a note with the security code for the cellphone and laptop. Lynn Hearst knew Smith still grieved the death of an ex-girlfriend, but she didn’t realize the depth of that despair. Unlocking Smith’s electronic devices, she was shocked to see what Smith did in the final minutes of life. (Gutierrez, 3/6)

In an industrial corner of downtown by the Los Angeles River, a mental health response team drove around in search of a man described only as wearing a blue shirt. Strapped to a seat in the back, 34-year-old Rafael Arias Delgado, a psychiatric technician, relayed the location to his teammates up front. “It’s at the end of Banning Street,” he yelled. The trio were among two dozen healthcare workers taking part in a mock training session Thursday to practice engaging mentally ill people in crisis who need treatment. In this case, the man in the blue shirt was a firefighter playing a role. The exercise came as city and county officials converged nearby at the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Station No. 4 to announce the launch of a pilot program for trained workers like Delgado, instead of law enforcement personnel, to respond to nonviolent emergency calls. (Vives, 3/4)

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to overhaul California’s mental health care system by expanding treatment services and compelling more people to accept help was cheered by many local government officials this week. But for many counties, the difficult question now is how they would pay for such an ambitious expansion of treatment and court services when many locales are already struggling to provide such care. Graham Knaus, executive director of the California State Association of Counties, warned that many behavioral and social health systems are still digging out from decades of underfunding. He said the part of Newsom’s plan that calls for sanctions if counties cannot provide comprehensive treatment to those suffering from debilitating psychosis is misguided. (Ravani and Gardiner, 3/4)

A cancer patient enrolled in a health insurance plan serving Los Angeles County’s poorest and most vulnerable residents was left untreated as their health rapidly deteriorated, according to state regulators. Another enrollee was left “suffering extreme pain” for weeks while waiting for treatment. Treatment for a third patient, diagnosed with lymphoma and given less than a year to live, was delayed for more than two months. That patient left the plan, L.A. Care, for other insurance in a desperate attempt to save their life. (Dolan and Mejia, 3/4)

L.A. Care, the nation’s largest publicly operated health plan, was fined $55 million for failing to authorize care thousands of poor and at-risk members, causing health-threatening treatment delays, California regulators announced Friday. The fines — by far the largest in state history — were levied against the Los Angeles County health plan by the state Department of Managed Health Care and the Department of Health Care Services. (3/4)

AI’s next big health care experiment can now begin. Microsoft closed on a $16 billion acquisition of Nuance Communications Friday, launching a plan to leverage its speech recognition software and other AI capabilities to seize what the tech giant sees as a $500 billion market opportunity. Executives told STAT the plan is to package Nuance’s software products with Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure to more seamlessly deliver AI tools to providers, payers, and life sciences companies. An early example is a medical imaging service Nuance launched using Microsoft’s technology last fall that combines an array of radiology tools into a single portal. (Ross, 3/4)

The nursing home industry is launching a lobbying offensive in several states to limit what healthcare staffing agencies can charge providers, but the efforts are facing fierce headwinds from agencies, lawmakers, nurses and, in some cases, hospitals. The wave of legislation in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania comes amid a pandemic that saw rates for traveling nurses soar, due to increased demand for their services. That means higher staffing costs for hospitals and nursing homes, who accused agencies of "price gouging" and taking advantage of a pandemic. Providers argue something needs to be done to rein in staffing agencies, and with action unlikely at the federal level, nursing homes are turning to state legislatures. (Hellmann, 3/4)

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is now offering a graduate nursing concentration in psychiatric mental health, starting in fall 2022. Licensed registered nurses can apply for a master’s program that will qualify them to take a national certification exam, the university’s College of Nursing & Health Sciences said in a news release. (3/5)

It got a lot easier for patients with opioid addiction to get their medication remotely during the pandemic — and now addiction doctors and telehealth companies are pushing Congress to make those flexibilities permanent. Before Covid-19, patients had to see a doctor in person for prescriptions to help them with their addictions, like buprenorphine. Now, at least temporarily, they can get them via telehealth appointments. Experts say loosening the rules helped eliminate longstanding barriers to addiction care, like a lack of transportation or a shortage of clinicians who prescribe medically assisted treatment, especially in rural communities. But the changes are temporary, tied to the state of “emergency” associated with the pandemic — and proponents want them made permanent. (Marquardt, 3/7)

Amazon and Teladoc have pitched a new feature letting millions of consumers call doctors directly from their smart speakers as a way to get more people to seek health care. But despite voice-assistant Alexa’s ubiquity, it’s not yet clear if the partnership will meaningfully address long standing social and economic barriers to health that underserved groups face, like lack of insurance, lack of established relationships with providers, or distrust in the health care system, experts tell STAT. (Ravindranath, 3/7)

A data breach at Ascension Michigan may have exposed some patients' Social Security numbers and other health information. The health system said an unauthorized individual inappropriately accessed patient information in its electronic health record between Oct. 15, 2015, and Sept. 8, 2021. It became aware of suspicious activity in the electronic health record and immediately began an investigation. On Nov. 30, after an extensive review, the health system said,  it determined how long the person accessed patient information. The user's access was immediately ended. (Hall, 3/4)

A Purdue University researcher has landed a $1 million grant to boost his work on a rapid test for detecting African swine fever. The funding for Mohit Verma, an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, was included in the U.S. Farm Bill to help enhance the nation’s ability to develop rapid tests for high-consequence diseases, the Journal & Courier reported. (3/6)

KHN: Patients Divided Over Alzheimer’s Drug: Is It A ‘Risk I’m Willing To Take’ Or Just A ‘Magic Pill’? 

If you listen to the nation’s largest Alzheimer’s disease advocacy organizations, you might think everyone living with Alzheimer’s wants unfettered access to Aduhelm, a controversial new treatment. But you’d be wrong. Opinions about Aduhelm (also known as aducanumab) in the dementia community are diverse, ranging from “we want the government to cover this drug” to “we’re concerned about this medication and think it should be studied further.” (Graham, 3/7)

A grandmother, two great aunts and a cousin. That’s how many people have been diagnosed with colorectal cancer in Dr. Jason Willis’ family. The MD Anderson Cancer Center oncologist has seen the pain it can inflict both inside and outside the clinical setting. And as someone who is biracial, with a Hispanic mother and Black father, he is deeply familiar with the increased risk among people of color. “It’s striking to see not only the rates of early onset colon cancer increase over the past several years, but also this disparity,” he said. “ Certainly as a Black man that jumps out to me.” (Gill, 3/5)

When Crystal Ortner was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, her doctors decided to tackle it with an extremely aggressive chemotherapy regimen that included six drugs, along with numerous surgeries. During her initial round of treatment, Ortner experienced septic shock, causing her doctors to cease chemotherapy for a period of time because her body was too weak to handle it. Later, she said, her extreme side effects while on chemotherapy — constant vomiting, nausea, an overall feeling of complete debilitation — felt like “going to hell and back.” ... Research has long shown that women are more likely than men to have severe reactions to chemotherapy treatments. At the same time, emerging evidence suggests that women also experience greater toxicity with targeted therapies and immunotherapies, which aim in part to mitigate the inherent toxicities of chemotherapy. (Banks, 3/7)

Unilever PLC, which makes high-sugar treats like Ben & Jerry’s and Magnum ice-creams, has pledged to publish new nutritions benchmarks for its food brands as investors urge the global giant to take more responsibility for improving consumer health. Public reports will be issued on the performance of its products against at least six different government-endorsed measures, including the U.K.’s regulations against high fat, salt and sugar, and Europe’s Nutri-Score, Unilever said in a statement Monday. The assessment will be published annually -- starting in October -- both globally and for 16 key markets including the U.S., U.K. and China. (3/7)

Spending just 30 to 60 minutes each week on muscle strengthening exercises can not only make you stronger, but also likely add years to your life, new research suggests. Strength-building exercise has long been recommended by experts as life-enhancing. And there's been a growing body of research suggesting even a little exercise helps fend off disease and increases life spans. This new analysis of 16 exercise studies found people who did 30 to 60 minutes of resistance exercises weekly had a lower risk of getting heart disease, diabetes or cancer, as well as 10% to 20% lower risk of early death from all causes, according to the study published Monday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. (Miranda, 3/5)

Last June, over a period of three days, a heat wave baked the Pacific Northwest. Temperatures soared to 117 degrees in a region where many homes don’t have air conditioners. While final estimates of heat wave-related fatalities are still being determined, Kristie Ebi, a professor with the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington, said approximately a thousand people are believed to have died from the extreme temperatures. “If anything else happened that in a few days killed 1,000 people, we’d call it a mass casualty event,” Ebi said. But the United States, like other countries, has been slow to mitigate the dangers of extreme heat, and the problem is only going to get worse. (Kutz, 3/4)

Texas Children’s Hospital has stopped prescribing gender-affirming hormone therapies — a move that could affect thousands of transgender children in Texas — in response to a controversial directive from state leaders to investigate medical treatments for transgender youth as child abuse. The nation’s largest pediatric hospital revealed the decision Friday, dealing a blow to parents of transgender children who were seeking access to medicine that slows the onset of puberty or hormone treatments that help older children develop into bodies that match their identities. (Gill and Banks, 3/4)

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he’ll appeal a court order temporarily blocking the state’s child protective services agency from investigating the parents of a transgender teen for alleged child abuse. Abbott filed a so-called notice of accelerated appeal of the order on Thursday in Texas state court in Austin. The conservative Republican seeks to enforce his controversial Feb. 22 letter requiring state officials to investigate parents who seek gender-affirming care for their transgender children. (Larson, 3/4)

Requests for free breast binders by transgender youths in 2022 have outnumbered supplies at Health Care Advocates International (HCAI) in Stratford, which serves LGBTQ and HIV communities. HCAI received 126 binder requests in the first three weeks of January alone, crushing last year’s numbers and temporarily wiping out inventory. The group sent out 190 binders in all of 2021. A quarter of them went to Connecticut youths, with the rest shipped nationwide and beyond. (Dannhauser, 3/5)

Facing an escalating caseload, the state’s chief medical examiner’s office has sharply reduced how often it conducts autopsies in recent years, opting instead for faster, less-intensive examinations and driving autopsy rates here to one of the nation’s lowest levels among similar offices. As part of that shift, its medical examiners are increasingly turning to yet another method in its investigations, new data show: viewing photos in lieu of the actual body. Nearly 1,200 times last fiscal year — or in roughly one of every seven cases the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner investigated — a medical examiner did not examine a body in person before identifying a cause and manner of death, instead relying on medical records and photographs taken by staff, according to a newly released report. It nearly doubled the number of so-called chart reviews from the previous year, and it was an eight-fold increase from just four years earlier, a Globe review found. (Stout, 3/6)

Two years ago, Dr. Roger Kligler needed a walker to travel a short distance from his Falmouth home. Then a loop or two around his cul-de-sac expanded to three or four. Eventually, Kliger was trekking to another neighborhood. Nowadays, the 70-year-old physician, who was diagnosed with cancer 20 years ago, finds clarity with a meditative two-hour evening walk near a pond and bird sanctuary. Like so many times since Kligler became ill, his health has declined — only to remarkably rebound. “I should be long dead,” Kligler, who has stage 4 prostate cancer, said Thursday via Zoom. (Alanez, 3/5)

Even with new HIV cases falling in New York City each year, the proportion taking root in Black populations has steadily risen. From 2003 to 2020, new HIV diagnoses in the city fell to 1,396 from 2,832, according to data from the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The proportion of new cases in Black populations, however, rose to 47% from 42% during that time. Cases among Latinos and Asian-Pacific Islanders stayed at roughly the same levels, 34% and 5% in 2020, respectively, from 2013. Only white populations saw a drop, from 18% to 13%. (Sim, 3/4)

Eric Adams has a problem with chocolate milk. New York’s first self-professed vegan mayor was at the forefront of a movement to ban chocolate milk from public schools before his time in City Hall. Now, equipped with the power to set policies for the nation’s largest school system, the evangelist for healthy living has again turned his attention to the lunch-room staple — and registered concern with the state’s powerful dairy industry. (Bocanegra and Toure, 3/6)

The state is partnering with dental clinics provide dental hygiene services to Maine veterans who are unable to afford them. The Maine Bureau of Veterans’ Service said it’s working with eight clinics, including the UMA Dental Hygiene Clinic in Bangor, to provide the service. The Maine Veterans’ Dental Network, which the veterans bureau oversees, received a $35,000 grant from Northeast Delta Dental to provide the care to veterans. (3/6)

A set of bills designed to reduce the cost of health care and divert more spending to primary care has spurred opposition from advocates who say the measures will harm access to necessary treatment, particularly for people with disabilities. House Bill 5042 gives the Office of Health Strategy the power to set annual benchmarks for health care costs. If costs rise above those benchmarks, the state would talk with providers and insurers about what’s driving the increase. Those meetings would be public, said Vicki Veltri, the office’s executive director. (Monk, 3/4)

The Delaware County Health Department is set to launch April 2, director Melissa Lyon announced, after the commonwealth approved its plans this week. The county of nearly 600,000 people has long been the most populous in Pennsylvania without a health department and the only one without one in the Philadelphia region. County officials had considered creating a health department for decades, but the idea never gained enough traction until 2019. The pandemic further delayed those plans. The health department in neighboring Chester County stepped in to help manage Delaware County’s COVID-19 response for more than a year. (McCarthy, 3/4)

South Carolina’s health agency is again asking people to bring certain types of dead birds to their offices so they can test them for West Nile virus. Starting March 15, officials are looking for the bodies of crows, blue jays, house finches, and house sparrows that don’t appear to be injured and haven’t started decaying, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said in a news release. (3/6)

A month after warning more than 4,600 veterans they might have been exposed to HIV, Hepatitis B and C, a Middle Georgia VA medical center says it has not identified any new infections. The Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin paused medical procedures for two days in January after an internal review found issues with the staff’s procedures for sterilizing equipment between patients. (Baxley, 3/4)

The Russian tanks and missiles besieging Ukraine also are threatening the food supply and livelihoods of people in Europe, Africa and Asia who rely on the vast, fertile farmlands of the Black Sea region — known as the “breadbasket of the world.” Ukrainian farmers have been forced to neglect their fields as millions flee, fight or try to stay alive. Ports are shut down that send wheat and other food staples worldwide to be made into bread, noodles and animal feed. And there are worries Russia, another agricultural powerhouse, could have its grain exports upended by Western sanctions. (Wilson, Magdy, Batrawy and Asadu, 3/6)

China's Red Cross will provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine "as soon as possible", Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday, as he praised his country's friendship with Russia as "rock solid". ... It was the first time the country has announced such help. China proposes that "humanitarian action" must abide by the principles of neutrality and impartiality, and humanitarian issues should not be politicised, he added. (Woo, 3/7)

A man who split his time between the St. Louis area and Ukraine, helping arrange adoptions of children with medical needs, has died amid the fighting in the war-torn country. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Serge Zevlever was killed when he volunteered to check on a commotion outside a Kyiv bomb shelter on Feb. 26, his daughters said. That was just two days after Russian forces launched an invasion of Ukraine. (3/5)

Hong Kong’s Covid-19 death rate is now the highest in the world, after fatalities among the city’s under-vaccinated elderly surged and concerns mount there may be more to come as infections spread through care facilities. The financial hub’s seven-day rolling average rose to 27 deaths per 1 million people as of Sunday, according to Bloomberg calculations based on Johns Hopkins University data. That’s double Latvia, which has the second-highest rate, and far surpasses the peak of the U.S.’s omicron wave. (3/6)

China reported its biggest one-day tally of coronavirus infections since the Wuhan outbreak at the start of the pandemic, with efforts to contain its spread set to challenge the strict Covid Zero strategy that’s isolated it from the rest of the world. The nation announced 526 cases on Monday, including 312 asymptomatic infections, with multiple clusters around the country. Shanghai, which has seldom seen a flareup during the pandemic, saw almost 50 infections. The port city of Qingdao had 163, centered around students at a high school, and the southern manufacturing hub of Dongguan reported 153 cases. (3/7)

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law a bill that raises the minimum age of sexual consent from 12 to 16, his office said on Monday, in a bid to protect minors from rape and sexual abuse. The Philippines until now has had one of the world's lowest minimum ages of sexual consent, behind Nigeria's age of 11, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). (3/7)

An advisory to parents from Boston Children’s Hospital is titled: “The great mask debate: how to deal with bullying over face masks in school.” Then there is the 8-year-old child in Missouri asking her school district to mandate masks after being bullied for wearing one by fellow classmates without masks. Bullying in schools over mask wearing has been reported by local news media across the nation. Students wearing masks and those not apparently have been bullied and ridiculed, though it appears those wearing masks more commonly targets. This bully, however, hasn’t been a salient topic in the national debate over face masks in schools. (Frederic H. Decker, 3/6)

What strikes me about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) performative excoriation of a group of high school students this past week is how completely it undercuts his boastfulness about the “freedom” Floridians enjoy. ... What this gets at is something that’s difficult to measure: the social pressures of combating the coronavirus. Since the outset of the pandemic, polling has indicated that Americans generally fall into one of two groups. There are those who believe it’s important to wear a mask around others, who were quickly vaccinated and boosted and who have limited social interactions. Then there are those who wear masks only sporadically, shrug at getting vaccinated or boosted and who think that life should just get back to normal. (Philip Bump, 3/6)

Most people get their medical advice from their doctors. But many may soon get it from state legislators, a frightening prospect that has already become law in two states and may happen in 24 more, with 47 pieces of active legislation under consideration. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, many politicians have offered medical advice. President Trump endorsed bleach and hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, as Covid therapies. YouTube suspended the account of Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) after he shared a clip touting the benefits of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Similarly, Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas) encouraged the use of ivermectin shortly after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration had spoken out against its use. (Richard J. Baron and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, 3/7)

The suddenness of the pandemic and the suddenness of so many deaths were unspeakably tragic. Yet, for those patients and families who have managed to stay Covid-free over the last two years, the fear of Covid and the urgent desire to protect oneself may have been dulled by time and the relatively mild symptoms that were widely reported with the last variant of concern. But now, with an elevated risk of heart disease, stroke and blood clots as a possible long-term effect of Covid-19 -- conditions that can be chronic and slowly debilitating -- perhaps the VA researchers will do something that almost a million American deaths has not: frighten a broad swath of the vaccine-hesitant into rolling up their sleeves and taking the shots. (Kent Sepkowitz, 3/4)

When I hear people talk about abortion, especially those who are opposed to this aspect of reproductive care, I only hear stories portraying the pregnant person as selfish, erratic or irresponsible. It’s as if they are only thinking of the current moment and only of themselves. This isn’t the case. Many women who need abortion care are thinking about the future, about the children we want to have, about the children we will need to feed, clothe, house and give time and energy to. Some of us worry another pregnancy will not leave enough resources for the children we already have and love. We’re also allowed to think of ourselves. Some of us know a pregnancy would keep us living in poverty, or bind us forever to people who abuse us. Do we not deserve protection? (Robin Krunkel, 3/4)

Over decades, in one situation after another, Texas has been the epicenter of America’s abortion rights battle. ... Even before S.B. 8 took effect, reproductive rights advocates in Texas felt that most of the country wasn’t paying attention. This may be because many Americans have long regarded Texas politics as nothing but the right-wing fringe — easily dismissed and not to be taken seriously. (Mary Tuma, 3/6)